About This Book

The stories:

Tower Of Power
One night in the life of a rock and roll radio newsman. Winona's first published story, winner of the Flare Fiction Competition, published in Flare in September 1982.

---

Dietrich's Ash
Inspired by an unfortunate situation that arose from a disputed property line between Winona's house and her neighbour’s house when she was growing up in Regina. Okanagan Short Fiction Award  winner. Originally published in Canadian Author & Bookman, Winter 1985. Anthologized in Pure Fiction: The Okanagan Short Story Award Winners (Fitzhenry & Whiteside) 1986. Broadcast on CBC Radio, Ambience, 1982.

---

True Confessions
A Temp with nothing much to do, a tea lady named Mrs. Thatcher, and a rooftop garden overlooking a builder's yard. Originally published in Green's Magazine, a small literary journal in Regina, Volume XII, Number 4, Summer 1984.

---

Creatures from Greek Mythology
A student with a crush on his Social Studies teacher. A high school dance. A fine arts student who paints rainbows around her eyes. (Second Prize Winner, WQ Editors Prize). Published in Cross-Canada Writers Quarterly. Vol 6, No. 1, 1984.

---

The Man in the Grey Eldorado

The first draft of this was written roundabout 1977 or 1978, after Winona had spent a glorious few weeks at the Saskatchewan Summer School of the Arts at Fort San (a former TB sanitorium).  Inspired by The Man from UNCLE, this is one of only two previously unpublished stories in the collection.

---

Herd Maintenance

Winona wrote this in 1981 while she was working as a Temp at a federal government office in Regina. This is the second unpublished story in the collection, although it did enjoy a brief life as a short, unproduced film script while Winona was at Vancouver Film School in 2003-4. The typewritten letters in the story are real. The names have been removed to protect the innocent.

---

Perhaps an Angel

An adventure involving the two main characters from Winona's time travel romances, Charlie Duran and Shaun Deeley. Originally published in Carnival, a collection of short stories by Fable Press authors, in 2013.

---

Easy When You Know How

Another Charlie Duran/Shaun Deeley short story, in which Mr. Deeley manages to spare change John Lennon at the premiere of A Hard Day’s Night, and snag one of his plectrums. The story is included at the end of Winona's time travel romance novel, In Loving Memory.

---

Salty Dog Blues

Jason Davey, Winona's professional musician / amateur sleuth, was originally featured in a standalone novel, Cold Play (2012), working as an entertainer on board an Alaska-bound cruise ship. In Salty Dog Blues, Winona took Jason back to that nautical setting, and gave him a very tongue-in-cheek mystery to solve. Salty Dog Blues was specifically written for the short story anthology Crime Wave 1: Where Maple Meets Murder, published by Sisters in Crime-Canada West in November 2020. The story was a finalist in the Crime Writers of Canada's 2021 Awards of Excellence for Best Crime Novella.

---

Blue Devil Blues

This is a short story that was written for the anthology Last Shot: Four Tales of Murder, Mystery and Suspense, published in June 2021 with additional stories by Alice Bienia, Dwayne Clayden and Peter Kingsmill. It tells the tale of how Jason got his permanent gig at the Blue Devil jazz club in London's Soho, and also manages to include Winona's obsession with the London Underground.